Small Businesses - A Target for Cyber Criminals
Small businesses are common targets of cyberattacks. In fact, they had more confirmed data breaches in 2023 than large enterprises, and 82% of ransomware attacks in 2021 targeted small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs).
Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting small businesses, and these attacks are frequently successful. As cybercrime groups scale their attacks, small businesses are viable and profitable targets. However, these organizations often lack the cybersecurity programs and resources needed to defend themselves.
The Security Challenges of Small Businesses
As the cyber threat landscape evolves, small businesses are facing sophisticated cyberattacks. However, they often lack the same resources and defenses against cyberattacks as larger businesses. This is true for various reasons, such as limited IT budgets and resources and other priorities. As a result, small businesses are often easy targets for cyber threat actors, and these companies often struggle to recover after suffering a cyberattack. In many cases, small businesses go out of business after a successful cyberattack.
In the end, it is challenging for small businesses to focus on what matters most – keeping their business alive and thriving (which is what they care about the most above all) when under the constant threat of growing cyber threats. Resources and focus diverted to defending the business can’t be used to help it grow.
Common Cyber Threats for Small Businesses
Small businesses face a variety of cyber threats. Some of the biggest threats to small business include:
- Phishing: Phishing attacks use social engineering to trick the target into handing over sensitive information. For example, the attacker could target bank account information, login credentials, and other sensitive information.
- Password Loss: Passwords provide attackers with legitimate, privileged access to corporate systems and applications. If an attacker guesses or steals passwords — via phishing or other means — they can abuse this access to steal data or plant malware.
- Malware: Malware is malicious software that is used in various types of attacks. Often, small businesses are targeted by malware attacks delivered via phishing emails and similar means.
- Ransomware: Ransomware is malware that encrypts or steals data and then demands a ransom. If a company doesn’t pay the ransom, then it could lose its data forever or have sensitive customer and business data leaked.
- Spyware: Spyware is a type of malware that spies on the users of infected computers. Spyware can collect credit card data, passwords, and other sensitive business data.
Cyber Security Best Practices for Small Businesses
Often, cybercriminals target the low-hanging fruit. Some best practices small businesses can implement to make themselves harder targets include:
- Use Strong, Unique Passwords: Cybercriminals use lists of common passwords and brute force searches to find common, short passwords. Use a complex password of at least eight characters to protect accounts.
- Lock Down Your Attack Surface: Cyber threat actors will search until they find an entry point. Identifying and locking down all potential entry points reduces your digital attack surface.
- Segment Your Network: Network segmentation breaks a network into several isolated zones. Doing so helps to isolate sensitive systems and data from guest networks and high-risk applications.
- Implement a Security Policy: Security policies define what is and isn’t allowed on the corporate network. Creating, enforcing, and educating users about these policies helps to prevent mistakes and reduce risk to the organization.
- Be Careful on Socials: Cybercriminals often use social media to collect information or perform phishing attacks. Limiting the data posted online and being suspicious of unusual messages helps protect against these threats.
- Use Encryption: Encrypted data is unreadable without the secret key. Encrypting all sensitive data makes it much harder for cybercriminals to access and steal it.
- Keep Systems Up to Date: Most systems and software require regular maintenance. Quickly applying updates and patches eliminates vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by an attacker.
- Be Cautious in the Cloud: Cloud environments have numerous benefits, but they’re very different from on-prem environments. Be sure to properly and securely configure cloud environments.
- Limit Administrative Access: Many users want administrator access because it gives them more power over their own computers. However, it also means that a compromised account is much more dangerous to the organization.
- Manage BYOD: BYOD programs can benefit the company and its employees if properly managed. However, it’s important to have a policy in place and educate users about the rules and risks.
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